Design Principle #5 – Immersion

Will you suspend your disbelief for us?  It is critically important that you, the player, feel immersed in the world that Marjorie has created and we’ve put into game form.  The choices made by the art team and guided by the art director are clearly some of the highest impact ways to make a player feel like they’re part of this world.  The way I promote immersion is through what the player will find and how they interact with the game.  The Dirk’n’Steele-verse is a little magical, it’s a little bit fantastical.  And, hopefully, the player will find that in the puzzles that they encounter.

The goal is for the player to be in a world that they can accept.  The Dirk’n’Steele-verse is a contemporary, modern one which means that we need to make it realistic and familiar.  Fantasy or sci-fi universes have their own sets of constraints or needs to make it feel “real.”  Luckily for us, there are bits and pieces in Dela’s world that are a bit different than our world:  Ancient warriors coming out of tiny boxes or being able to manipulate metal with one’s mind, for example.  That keeps it interesting for sure!

So how can we go about not breaking the illusion?

This may seem a bit contradictory, but a designer that I highly respect once told me “the players know it’s a game, Mari.”  Which seems obvious, but sometimes I’m so close to the project that I forget that (maybe I’M too immersed in it).  As long as there isn’t anything that’s TOO broken (ridiculously magical physics, inconsistent continuity, stuff like that) players will suspend their disbelief a little bit (maybe give us/me the benefit of the doubt) and as long as they’re having fun, they’ll keep playing the game.  It all comes down to fun, again.  But, isn’t that why we play in the first place?

2 Responses to “Design Principle #5 – Immersion”

1. Cordia says:

   July 11, 2010 at 1:02 pm

   Fun and immersion are why I play. I enjoy games that are steeped in story, or that give me a clever perspective. Since March, I have rolled up my sleeves to try my hand at some hidden object games and it is very hard for me to really enjoy a game that has me just searching for random, unconnected items. It works for some people, that much is obvious, but my own enjoyment factor goes up immensely when I’m looking for things that are connected to the story. Luckily for me, there are more games coming out that seem to share this perspective. I have to say that Tiger Eye is one of only a handful of games I’ve found that does this all the way through. If you guys keep ANYTHING for the sequel, please keep that, so that I can stay immersed in the story!

   Reply
2. stuff free says:

   July 28, 2010 at 3:35 am

   Thanks for your visiting this http://www.hello-free.com online free stuff online.

   Reply